


take my hand? (hold on tight)

by theriveroflight



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon Compliant, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: They both know, but uncertainty plagues their relationship and their interactions.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 16
Kudos: 54
Collections: LBSCSprintFicChallenge





	take my hand? (hold on tight)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LBSC Sprint fic challenge.
> 
> Prompt: Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego): The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to start.

Marinette looks at Luka sometimes. She looks at him, she knows, the way a girl in love does, entirely too soft. When he’s playing guitar. When he’s manning the boat. When she’s teaching him how to draw. When he’s teaching her how to write music. There’s so much...so much left between them. So much that they have to cover. So much that they can do.

Marinette looks at Luka more than she should. A desire hidden deep in her heart, in the blue and the teal and the black and the dark.

The darkness with Luka isn’t a bad thing. She wants to dive into his night sky, his eyes glittering like the stars. He is like the ocean in a lot of ways, in that there is so much left to discover, and infinitely more to know.

Marinette hears Luka a lot. She closes her eyes to hear his voice, calming. She listens to his guitar, acoustic or electric. She listens to the casual tunes, made up casually over time. She listens to the songs with more effort put into them, and sometimes even his attempts at singing.

Luka isn’t objectively a good singer. He doesn’t have the kind of voice you would expect from an actor in a musical, or a tenor in a chorus, but he has a rough and husky singing voice. It’s something she would expect to hear in the frontman of an indie band, with a cover that’s a picture of a forest and a series of ballads. 

Luka isn’t objectively a good singer, but to Marinette his voice is like ocean waves, washing over her in a calming way, going out and in.

They touch a lot. Luka’s hoodie is soft under Marinette’s fingers, and the way his fingers sometimes run through her hair  _ feels  _ so amazingly good. Luka feels warm and comforting, and when she gets to handle his hair it always feels a little damp. His fingers are hard with calluses from playing the guitar. His hands are firm when they hold hers. He’s the flow of the tides, constantly there, going in and out but always returning.

Marinette doesn’t try to smell Luka, but sometimes she hugs him, and when she does she smells the cologne he uses to mask the smell of the boat and the Seine. She can’t identify exactly what the cologne is. And when she wears his hoodie, it smells like comfort, and warmth. A little bit like sweat, a little bit like that cologne, a little bit like laundry detergent (and she ignores the smell of the river buried deeply underneath).

Marinette has never tasted Luka, but she wants to try. She wants to kiss him, taste what he’s like when he’s happy, when he needs comfort…in every context. In every way.

Marinette wants to know Luka, wants to feel him, wants to sense him in every single way. She wants to know how every part of him feels, wants to know the taste of his lips, wants to see him without inhibitions, wants to hear him unguarded.

She wants him to be vulnerable with her, when she’s already given so much of her heart to him. She’s let her see so much. And now… 

* * *

Luka looks at Marinette, he knows, as though she’s going to save him. But what does he need to be saved from? He’s been the one that’s had to save her from herself and her burdens, relieving her and giving her a chance to relax. But he’s always known that somehow she would save him in return, and she  _ does. _

She does on an almost weekly basis, fighting against the forces of evil. He knows. He knows the secret buried deep within, threatening to surface again. He knows that she’s fighting for him, for all of them. And that’s how she saves him. That’s why he can save her in return.

Marinette’s voice is music to his ears, high praise for someone who grew up surrounded by music. It repeats in his mind, a siren song pulling him in closer, wanting him to hear her voice. Luka feels hypnotized by Marinette, by her own magnetism that she’s never seemed to comprehend.

Marinette has a melodic voice, but is too shy to sing. At any rate, she’s the song inside his heart, so as long as it’s there he never  _ needs  _ to hear her sing. But he wants to. He wants to hear her over his guitar, maybe not properly trained but properly voiced.

Luka wants to touch Marinette more than he is. He gets the occasional hug, the press of thighs and bodies when they sit next to each other. She’s smaller than him, the perfect height for when they hug. She can lean into him, and he  _ knows  _ what it’s like to feel loved then, he knows what it’s like to be wanted. Sometimes, she lays her head on his lap, and he cards his hands through her hair. It feels good. It relaxes both of them, really. Her hands are soft and delicate, mostly, but there are little scabs from pinpricks and a scar from an injury she doesn’t divulge.

He can’t help but catch snatches of her scent, the smell of her almond shampoo, light hints of perfume on some days, something that’s purely  _ Marinette  _ underneath all of that. She smells like him when he gives her his hoodies, and it covers up a lot of her smell. Luka enjoys  _ looking  _ at her wearing his hoodie — but he prefers the scent of Marinette and Marinette alone.

And...and to complete the set, he’s never tasted Marinette. He thinks she wears lip gloss. Luka wonders what it would feel like to kiss her, what that gloss tastes like, and if he does get it off her lips how would she taste underneath?

He wonders. He daydreams. He hopes.

Marinette has always been a distant miracle. But maybe...maybe she’s come back down for  _ him. _

* * *

Marinette notices sometimes. She notices how Luka will look at her, observe, something like wonder in his eyes.

She notices the affection he holds in every glance, every gesture, every smile, every move. She notices the way he touches her gently, treats her as though she’ll break. She notices the way that he takes her in as though she’s a sight to behold.

And she knows, she knows the way she looks in return, but she’s petrified. There are more reasons to reject a person besides unrequited affection. And while she’s almost certain that Luka likes her, she isn’t certain that he would want to be with her, whatever that would mean. And her attention has been spotty and divided before.

She’s too scared to make up her mind. She won’t pursue Adrien anymore, Chat Noir has never been safe, Kagami would  _ never,  _ but she’s too scared to go for the one person she knows likes her in return.

Marinette knows. But what she doesn’t know is what she’ll do about it, if anything. She doesn’t know what to do. The answer seems obvious...but what’s obvious isn’t always right. What’s obvious isn’t always good. And sometimes, it can be the wrong choice.

It tempts her, for certain, but she doesn’t dare.

* * *

Luka has always been observant. He knows how she looks at her, the blushing when he does give her his jacket, the times when they brush hands, her comfort around him.

Just the fact that she is comforted by him is enough to say something, because it does not seem as though Marinette is comfortable with vulnerability around just anyone. Marinette seems guarded a lot, but she let down her walls...for him.

So he lets himself hope, and he waits. He waits for Marinette to take his hand, he waits for Marinette to acknowledge what lays between them. He wants Marinette to be the one to guide him to what they could have together. Because if she’s the one guiding him, then he knows that she won’t turn her back on him. He would know that she’s dedicated to doing this, that she really wants to commit to him. And in the end, that commitment is all that matters, right?

He wants her more than anything. But he’s willing to wait, to let her be the one to ask. If she’s the one asking, he wouldn’t dream of saying no. But if he asks, and she isn’t ready...it would be crushing. So he’s willing to wait for her to approach her, instead of act.

They’re two lines, just waiting to intersect.

Two melodies, eventually meeting on the same note.

Two people, growing closer together.

Two, but one.

Luka knows this. And so he’ll keep waiting, as long as both of them are together in their approach.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me somewhere else, if you want:  
> @alto-tenure (main Tumblr)  
> @beunforgotten (writing-only Tumblr)  
> @riverofliight (Twitter)


End file.
